silence

Time for a heart to heart

LOCAL broking houses have been noticeably quiet about last week's collapse of Ventracor.

Almost a week has passed and not a single piece of enlightened commentary on the topic has crossed our desk. Not even from ABN AMRO Morgans, the Brisbane stockbroker that helped the heart pump maker raise $200 million over the years.

We would have thought that Morgans' healthcare analyst Scott Power would have had something to say about Ventracor's demise, especially since he thought the stock was a "buy" for so long.

As recently as last August, Power was advising his clients to "hold" on to their Ventracor shares.

Guess he's been busy providing enlightened commentary on something else.

At least Ventracor's tumble into voluntary administration has been noted in the US. Wedbush Morgan, which provides research on US medical device group Thoratec, noted that Ventracor was Thoratec's most advanced competitor in the ventricular assist device market.

Doubt that's much of a consolation for Ventracor's long-suffering shareholders, who should have followed the lead of their chief executive Peter Crosby, who dumped the bulk of his shares exactly a year ago. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,25237525-30538,00.html